My wife Cindi, related to me about a conversation that took place with her boss where she works. He happened to hear her sighing, and asked her what was wrong. At first she said that nothing was wrong, but then after some prodding, she told him that she was just murmuring like the Children of Israel did in the wilderness.
This prompted a long conversation about various things including different translations, and meanings of words and misinterpretations of the Bible. Curiosity about the possibility there might be some hidden gem in the meaning of murmuring in the Old Testament, lead Cindi to look it up in the original Hebrew language of the Strong's Concordance. Here is what that says:
Strong's Number: 03885 awl
Original Word Word Origin awl a primitive root
Definition to lodge, stop over, pass the night, abide (bold my emphasis)
(Qal) to lodge, pass the night to abide, remain (fig.)
(Hiphil) to cause to rest or lodge
(Hithpalpel) to dwell, abide to grumble, complain, murmur
(Niphal) to grumble
(Hiphil) to complain, cause to grumble
Translated Words
KJV (87) - ... the night, 14; abide, 7; continue, 1; dwell, 1; endure, 1; grudge, 1; left, 1; lie, 1; lodge, 33; lodge in, 2; murmur, 14; remain, 6; tarry, 2; variant, 3;
NAS (84) - abide, 2; dwell, 1; endure, 1; gazes, 1; growl, 1; grumble, 4; grumbled, 7; grumbling, 2; hang all night, 1; last, 1; left over, 1; lies all night, 2; lodge, 9; lodged, 6; lodges, 3; making, 1; night, 2; pass, 1; remain, 1; remain overnight, 2; remain with you all night, 1; sleep, 1; spend, 2; spend the night, 21; spent, 3; spent the night, 7;
What struck her, and myself as being odd was how that murmuring not only translated into grumble and complaining, as was expected, but how could it possibly also translate as lodge and abide? I think camp was another translation too. They certainly seemed to be pretty strange comparisons, and neither one of us could figure it out!
And so I thought it would remain a mystery. There was no reason to think otherwise, I had no intention of researching it any further. Then a few days later, one morning, I heard Cindi say something downstairs in our house while I was getting ready for work upstairs. Thinking she was talking to me I asked her what she said. She told me in jest, "I was just murmuring..... or camping, I don't know which!"
To which I replied, "Maybe you are camping IN your murmuring?"
And then it struck me!
Camping in your murmuring! Dwelling in your murmuring! Lodging in your murmuring! Murmuring and Living there! Perhaps that is what the verse is trying to convey. The idea that the Children of Israel were not just a little upset, and then it passed, but rather that murmuring became their whole life!
Hey, we all grumble and complain sometimes when things don't go our way. Often the complaints might be over little things that cause momentary inconveniences. In a hurry going somewhere, and a shoe lace breaks, or the car won't start, or you get a flat, or there is construction, or you get a ticket! All are reasons to cause us to murmur temporarily.
Now, consider the Israelites during their journey in the wilderness. Think of why they were "wandering" in the first place. Because no matter what happened they were never satisfied. For 400 years they were in slavery to Egypt, and all those years they would murmur because of their bondage. Then they were delivered by miracles from their bondage, and no sooner got their first taste of freedom, that they complained against Moses over and over again, and in fact, their complaints were really against the God who delivered them and not Moses. They dwelled on their complaints time and time again. Never satisfied! They actually longed for their slavery to Egypt once again!!
Thing about that the next time you start to murmur. Is it something that is rare and passing, or are you murmuring so often that you find yourself Camping In Your Murmuring!
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